What are they, and why should we spend time building them?

No matter what we want to do with our horses, these behaviors form the building blocks for everything—from basic handling to advanced dressage. If we want to train our horses without relying on pressure, these skills and the foundation behaviors become even more important.

Where Do We Start?

A common question I hear is:
“What are the first behaviors we should train? How do we decide what comes first?”

While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer, this structure offers a solid starting point for any horse. Of course, every horse is an individual, and behavior is always a study of one. But over time, I’ve found that introducing certain core skills first creates a strong base for any horse-human relationship.

As reward-based trainers, we start with rewards. Before focusing on behaviors, we need a structured system for how we deliver reinforcers. Horses need to understand what different treat deliveries mean, and how they can access good consequences through working, cooperating, or simply being present with us. This is where relationship-building begins.

The Structure 

This structure begins with 2 core skills and 4 foundational behaviors.

The core skills are:

1. Pause – A horse that is comfortable and relaxed around food and the environment we work in, knows when it's training time and when it's "pause". We teach this with rewards as with everything else.
2. Connection – A horse that willingly engages with me and their training in the environment we work in. What we mostly call "training". 

These two skills are the absolute starting point for every horse, whether they’re over-aroused around food or reluctant to be near humans. Building from pause and connection lays the strongest foundation possible.

Only after establishing these do we introduce foundation behaviors—the building blocks we use to develop more complex skills.

The 4 foundation behaviors are:

1. Hoof Target
2. Nose Target
3. Free Walk
4. Parking

While I have 10-15 other behaviors I may include depending on the horse, these four form the base for everything else. 

Why Build Foundations This Way?

We want horses to make good decisions on their own—even in the absence of direct instruction. An independent, confident horse is safer, happier, and more capable of learning. 

Core skills and foundation behaviors serve as a safety net. They are:

• Safe: Easy and safe for the horse and human to perform.
• Reliable: Horses can fall back on them in moments of confusion.
• Fluent: So well-learned that the horse can perform them automatically in various environments.

I like to use the metaphor of language learning that Morten Egbert from Canis often talks about.

First, we teach the ABCs (core skills), then we build words (foundation behaviors), and eventually, we form sentences (more complex movements). How you arrange these "sentences" depends on your goals and your horse's needs.

Fluency is Key

Fluency means a behavior is so well-learned that the horse can perform it without thinking—like driving a car becomes second nature over time. And we can both talk with fellow passengers and plan for a left turn.

Many training challenges come from a lack of fluency in foundation behaviors. Take the mat stand as an example. I spend a lot of time teaching my horses to stand still on a mat before adding movement or complexity. Rushing this step often results in horses that guess on other stuff or fidget on the mat, leading to frustration for both horse and trainer.

Fluent behaviors are:

• Easy to generalize across contexts.
• Require less brain power, reducing stress.
• Combine smoothly with other behaviors.
• More resistant to extinction.

Investing in this will make everything else you later want to do with your horse so much easier.